1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention relates to computerized medical diagnostic systems. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to a computerized system for time-based diagnosis of a patient's medical complaint by use of multiple diagnostic processes operating in parallel.
2. Description of the Related Art
A computerized method and system, including an embodiment called MDATA (Medical Diagnosis And Treatment Advice), has been described in Applicant's patents, such as Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 5,660,176, entitled “Computerized Medical Diagnostic And Treatment Advice System”, U.S. Pat. No. 5,594,638, entitled “Computerized Medical Diagnostic System Including Re-enter Function and Sensitivity Factors, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,724,968, entitled “Computerized Medical Diagnostic System Including Meta Function,” each of which is incorporated by reference. The automated diagnostic system is utilized in an automated system capable of conducting a consultation with a human user who is (or represents) the patient. In a typical consultation, the user asks the automated diagnostic system to diagnose a specific medical problem. The automated diagnostic system then asks the user questions about the patient's health and ultimately generates a differential diagnosis, i.e., a list of diseases or disorders that match the case, ranked in probability order. The automated diagnostic system is fully automated: other than the online user, no other human is involved in the consultation.
The automated diagnostic system has used several different diagnostic methods (methodologies) each having their own inherent strengths and weaknesses. What is desired are enhancements to the automated diagnostic system to add one or more automated processes, each of which is capable of performing an automated medical diagnosis by itself, so that a computer runs several processes to their conclusion at the same time, with each process working on the same case.